Florence Howe

Florence Rosenfeld Howe (March 17, 1929 – September 12, 2020) was an American author, publisher, literary scholar, and historian who is considered to have been a leader of the contemporary feminist movement.

Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 17, 1929, Florence Howe was the daughter of Samuel, a taxi driver, and Frances Stilly Rosenfeld, a bookkeeper.

Career In 1960, Howe was employed as an assistant professor in the English department at a private women's college, Goucher College, located in Maryland. In 1970, Howe founded The Feminist Press, "an educational nonprofit organization founded to advance women's rights and amplify feminist perspectives", the organization had published three books by 1973. In 1973, Florence Howe took on the role of President of the Modern Language Association after being voted in. In the years 1983 and 1993, Florence Howe served as a U.S. Department of State Grantee.

The Florence Howe Award The Florence Howe Award for feminist scholarship of the Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages is named in her honor. The Florence Howe Award is an annual feminist scholarship acknowledging two outstanding essays by members of the Women's Caucus, one from the field of English and one from a foreign language. The authors receive $250 and are honored at an event hosted by the Women’s Caucus at the annual MLA meeting.

Selected bibliography Books

30th anniversary edition. Introduction by Mari Jo Buhle

Chapters in books Introduction by Mari Jo Buhle

Other She contributed the piece "The Proper Study of Womankind: Women's Studies" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.